Posts Tagged ‘plant packaging’

Coca-Cola has made their vision clear of making all of their plastic bottles from plant-based materials and recycled plastic by 2020. Their latest development is rolling out new packaging for their 500ml drinks. The new PlantBottle packaging is made from 22.5% renewable plant-based PET and 25% recycled plastic. The reason these new bottles are more eco-frlendly is that they’ll reduce the company’s dependency on fossil fuels. They are being released today in the UK and can be identified with a PlantBottle logo. More than 5 billion of Coke’s PlantBottles will be available in 20 countries by the end of 2011.

Coca-Cola is not new to the green movement. In fact, last year they won the Best Sponsor Activation award at the UK Festival Awards for their recycling program. Coke is committed to recover the equivalent of 100% of their packaging by 2020.

Odwalla, known for their freshly packaged fruit juices and smoothies, are transitioning to eco-friendly packaging by March of 2011. The green packaging, also known as PlantBottle packaging, is made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is made of up to 100% plant-based materials and is 100% recyclable. Odwalla estimates that the PlantBottle packaging is equal to a savings of almost 400,000 gallons of gas, compared to using petroleum-based packaging.

PlantBottle packaging was first introduced by Coca-Cola in 2009 where it was used in their Dasani water bottles. At the time, the bottle was made only from 30% plant material and the rest from petroleum-based materials.

PlantBottle packaging is made from molasses and sugarcane juice and is said to have the same performance as HDPE and PET bottles. Shelf-life, weight, composition, appearance, are all the same.

Odwalla also participates in the Plant A Tree Program, and has planted more than 300,000 trees over the last three years. The company also installed a Bloom Energy Fuel Cell system at its plant in Dinuba, Calif., which reduces the plant’s carbon footprint by 35 percent while supplying 30 percent of the plant’s energy needs.